Toyota’s received a modern and glossy new Prius, and the auto press appears to agree: This one appears to be like fairly cool. Previous Prius fashions have lengthy been seen as, uhh, lower than cool, with their awkwardly boxy teardrop form and normcore vibe. The 2023 Prius, by comparability, appears to be like stylish, with a modern physique that squishes down that Prius teardrop into one thing resembling a Tesla.
It’s nonetheless a combustion-electric hybrid that requires its fill of gasoline to run—sadly, the all-electric revolution hasn’t come for the previous Prius but. Toyota says it will get about 57 mpg, which makes it probably the most fuel-efficient Prius but. The automobile can be going to be zippier than earlier than, with a 220-horsepower engine underneath the hood. That is sweet for a Prius; ask a automobile individual. Other new features embody a hands-free driving mode and the inclusion of photo voltaic panels for topping up the battery whereas the automobile is stationary.
The new Prius can be accessible in two fashions: the bottom Prius and a barely beefier Prius Prime. Toyota hasn’t mentioned when the vehicles can be accessible or how a lot they’ll value, however search for them subsequent 12 months.
Here’s another information from the buyer tech world.
Microsoft Teams Gets Games
Microsoft introduced a new characteristic for its Teams video conferencing software program: video games. Participants in a Teams name can now play video games like Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Wonderment proper within the app. The video games are aimed toward folks utilizing Teams for work. Nancy Baym, senior principal analysis supervisor at Microsoft, says placing video games inside a office device fosters a sense of human connection that’s badly wanted after nearly three years of distant work.
“People were able to be really productive, but they were feeling less connected, and that was having a lot of harmful effects,” Baym says. “Games are one of a number of really nice ways to just sort of gently intervene there and say, here’s an offering for you to build connection with one another in a low pressure kind of way.”
To reinforce that purpose of connection constructing, not one of the video games are single participant. (No, not even Solitaire). That means you gained’t have the ability to quietly play a sport by your self as you fake to hearken to your supervisor’s supervisor drone on about quarterly KPIs. Playing video games together with your crew might present a good break from the deluge of the workday, even when it nonetheless quantities to spending time in entrance of a display screen. We’ll see how lengthy it takes for Zoom fatigue to provide option to Minesweeper fatigue.
Look at Leica’s Large Lens Phone
Hey test it out, Leica made one other smartphone to comply with 2021’s Leitz Phone 1. What’s that? Does it have a digital camera, you ask? Oh, does it. As you would possibly anticipate from the illustrious digital camera model, the Leica’s lens is the principle attraction on the Leitz Phone 2. The single big-ass lens occupies the highest third of the telephone. Its ocular-focused design is a rebuttal to all of the subtly built-in smartphone digital camera lenses.
The Leitz Phone 2’s big digital camera captures 47.2-megapixel photographs. On the opposite aspect is a 6.6-inch OLED display screen that permits you to view all of your beautiful panorama pictures or gloriously detailed selfies. Oh yeah, and you can even use it to make telephone calls or no matter. It will solely be accessible in Japan; these exterior of the nation must purchase it as an import.
Netflix Is Coming for Your Friends
The days of Netflix account sharing are probably inching to a shut. This week, Netflix launched a new characteristic in customers’ account settings referred to as Managing Access and Devices. It permits a person to disable their Netflix account on particular units—one thing that person can conveniently deploy to kick relations, mates, and roommates off their Netflix account. It’s an innocuous sufficient characteristic, and one which can be good for anybody who desires to zap their credentials from the tv they misplaced within the divorce, with the intention to cease their ex from stealth-streaming reveals on their dime. But it is also a transfer that units the stage for Netflix’s purge of account sharing.
Netflix has been building toward this for months. The firm has examined charging additional charges for added accounts in a few international locations, and it says it’s seeking to implement the program in practically all of its markets subsequent 12 months. The firm additionally rolled out an ad-supported subscription plan earlier this month.
Too Many Twitter Troubles
Well, Twitter had a good run. Now that just about each worker has left Twitter and the positioning appears to be in freefall, issues are about to get even weirder on the hen app. (Assuming it stays up and working.) In no matter type Twitter continues to limp alongside, it’s by no means been extra weak to safety threats.
This week on WIRED’s Gadget Lab podcast, safety author Lily Hay Newman talks by means of the methods through which Twitter’s precarious place might result in hacking, information leaks, and the additional unfold of misinformation throughout the platform.
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